Not Quite As I Planned

So, I thought I'd be able to be a great mom, fantastic wife, A+ student, volunteer extraordinaire, an everyday blogger, and a few other daily/weekly task master however it just doesn't look like all that is going to be possible...DUH!  I'm just a bit crazy sometimes :)  I thought I'd jump on here and let you know how the first week of classes has gone for me--fantastic!  I'm excited for my classes this semester--Public Speaking and Personal and Community Wellness.  I'm getting in shape this semester! Last week I completed 5 days of working out and I've already tackled today's workout.  Public Speaking, well, that's a bit challenging but I appreciate the importance of it and how I can definitely benefit from the course.
Enough about me.  The kids completed their first full week of school last week too.  Penelope did her 2 days, one of which was all day.  She has asked daily to go to school despite being told she only goes 2 days a week.  The boys have some great teachers and are off to another wonderful year.  Alexander has already done some research and completed a report on the subject of himself.  John Paul has brought home some papers covering various reviews of last year's work.  I love his handwriting and listening to him read.  The boys are having fun competitions each evening as we review math facts. And, Stella is crawling! Eight months old and crawling! No teeth, no rolling over, CRAWLING!
Check a few of these out
Get some quick extra nutrients in your diet at Green Thickies
Was so excited for her baby announcement.
I'm excited to check out this site with the kids.  Did you know PBS Kids and Whole Foods have teamed up to create Fantastic Organic?
Have a beautiful week! :)

7 Quick Takes

{1} This crazy heat is sapping all my energy and desire to do anything.  I've taken the kids to the pool a handful of times this week.  I'm thankful for my air conditioning.  I'm praying for the people fighting the Colorado fires and for all those affected by the fires.
{2} Despite my lack of energy and desire, I had fun taking my kiddos to our church's Little Angel program several mornings this week.  Little Angels is like VBS for the younger ages.  My friend who organized and led it this year did a FABULOUS job!  And, I got to meet some new moms and make some new friends :)
{3} I also got outside to water the garden a couple of times.  My efforts in the heat have been rewarded!  I harvested some lovely tomatoes :)  This is the first lemon cherry tomato we picked a week or so ago.

{4} So pretty!

{5}  The best breakfast (when making a smoothie will wake everyone up) when it's hotter than Hades

Toast with avocado smashed on top and sprinkled with salt and pepper.  Also, tomato slices on top makes it yummy too.
{6} Another fun baseball season has come to an end...thankful we don't have any games in this crazy heat!

{7} Watching this relationship grow has beautiful and frustrating at the same time.  He loves her to the moon and back...which means he wants to play with her ALL THE TIME (that means he likes to wake her up!), he wants to carry her around, he wants her to wrestle with him.

Building Challenge

How did the building go this past week?  My kiddos had a blast brainstorming ideas of things to build for Hello Summer...pools, beaches, beach ball, sun, playground, ice cream truck, and more!  Alexander settled on creating a "surfer dude surfing."

John Paul created a fantastic beach scene complete with swimmers and sunbathers.

Penelope decided on a beach ball and the decided to create cards for people instead of building. And that's okay :)

Later she built a quick boat.

Now for this week's challenge: Zoo!
Get creative and create :)

Just thinking

I took Penelope to the park yesterday afternoon for a little play time before picking the boys up from school.  While I pushed her on the swing, I listened to an elderly couple chat as they pushed their twin probably about 2 year old grandsons on the swings too.  It made me think about how Jaime and I will be as grandparents.  I hope we are close to our grandkids, that we'll get to take them to the park and hang out.  It just made me happy listening and watching them interact.  Happy to be able to have this time with my kids.  Happy to be able to take them to a park, to push them on the swings, to watch them climb and slide.  This week I've been acutely thankful for the gift of the sense of hearing.  I get to hear their laughter, their prayers, their arguments, their ideas, their crying and whining. Some days I find myself wondering what life will be like when my kiddos are in their teens.  Alexander will be in high school when Stella starts kindergarten, she'll be his age now when he goes to college.  Exciting and sad to think about.  In other news, John Paul came home with lines to memorize for his Kindergarten play in a couple of weeks...just 2 days before the end of school...SUMMER STARTS IN A COUPLE WEEKS!!! :)

John Paul's SIX now!

Today is John Paul's sixth birthday!  The day started with him waking us up asking to open up his presents...how could we say no? :)

Then we had a quick breakfast and got ready for his soccer game.

My new 6 year old scored a goal too!

After soccer, Grammie Julie brought over the requested chocolate chip scones.  It wasn't even 10am and the boy had consumed copious amounts of sugar already because "it's my birthday!"  Jolly Ranchers and pop rings are my nemesis.

 Later we went to Target and got him some new thin tipped markers that he requested and he said, "now I'm in business!"  After Alexander's baseball game, we picked up some GF/DF pizza from Spin! and came home to enjoy it.  At both his request and Penelope's we sang Happy Birthday several times :)
I love you little man, you're growing up so fast!

Climbing higher and higher

Here's to finding taller trees :)

Happy Easter

Because it's still the Easter season I don't feel any guilt about getter this Easter picture up here 2+ weeks after Easter.
And, because trying to get a really good picture of all 4 at the same time is near impossible, I'm sharing just a fun one :)

Well, I suppose I should put a "serious" one on too

Happy Easter!

Homeschooling???

I've had all four kiddos home for two+ days this week (it's Wednesday right now).  The girls are usually home and the boys usually at school.  However the boys are fighting a nasty cold and John Paul has had a very low grade fever.  They are pretty energetic and really not suffering too much.  (A friend pointed out that I'm pretty lucky and should be thankful. So true!)  Anyway, since they aren't too bad, but can't be at school due to that pesky low grade evening fever, I decided we'd do school at home.  We've been busy doing math and reading as well as some art and science too.  I took the girls to story time at the library this morning and took the opportunity to check out a handful of art books.  They are currently recreating masterpieces :)  For science, I cheated and let them watch a science video I picked up.  Math this morning was doing some graphing with Legos--pictographs and bar graphs--and math facts.  I studied to be a teacher, I taught for a few years before having kids, I've occasionally thought about homeschooling, I've decided that I'll keep sending them to school :)

Siblings

Going from 3 kiddos to 4 has been pretty easy (granted I'm just shy of 4 weeks in to this!).  It's been pretty easy for a variety of reasons--number one being that Stella SLEEPS! (granted she's just shy of 4 weeks old)  None of the other 3 slept nearly as well as this little girl.  The next thing that has made it easy for me is the help I get in caring for Stella.  Alexander, John Paul, and Penelope (well, and my husband too) practically fight over who gets to hold her.  Penelope is the feistiest fighter and is happy to hold Stella whether she's crying or asleep.  Penelope seriously loves to bring me clean diapers, clothes, take dirty diapers to the laundry or trash, help bathe her, etc. etc. you get the idea.
Tonight, both Jaime and I were making dinner (a post to come about that soon).  Alexander stepped in to help out with a sleeping-but-wanting-to-be-held Stella and he got some reading done at the same time.

Little Photo Shoot

Last week I took advantage of some nice weather and the boys being out of school.  I took them to a park and got a few pictures :)

Pumpkin Patch

We love visiting one of the local pumpkin patches every year.  I'm picky about when we go...the weather has to be right--fall weather, cool, leaves changing.  This past weekend we had PERFECT weather!  It was a cool morning, but not as cold as a couple of years ago when we needed sweaters, coats, gloves, and hats.  It was warm enough that we didn't need coats, but long pants and sleeves were great.
Our usual trip got cut a bit short because John Paul sliced his finger open and decided he didn't really feel good (he also had spent the night at Grammy Julie's and didn't sleep much).  We all did have a wonderful time though and picked out some perfect pumpkins and got to ride the tractor ride.  The only thing we missed was our trip through the corn maze.

First was the tractor ride.  The tractors pull the trailer all around the fields so the riders can spot all the perfect pumpkins.  Penelope and John Paul kept pointing them all out. "Want that one!"

Then the wagons must be chosen.  These two insisted on these wagons although Penelope couldn't decide which one she wanted to push/pull and kept trading Alexander.  He was a good big buddy and went along with all the trading with little complaining.

While Alexander and Penelope did the wagon dance, John Paul was busy dragging and pulling the biggest pumpkin he could move.  Oh, the effort! :)

Spotting another perfect one.

The wagons are filling up...

Our loot

Fun times!

Gym Classes?

We say this is why we don't have any new furniture...

and REPEAT!